Well, conditions will be pretty austere, but we can handle that. Do I have to wait until I’m in space dock to modify a space as a brig, or can I start now? If I have my crew work on it now, it can be ready before we lift off.”
Commander Johnson mulled that over for a few seconds and said, “You can have your crew start now, but don’t tell them what it is for. Tell them you will be picking up some prisoners and bringing them back for court martial.”
Timmons nodded his assent and asked. “Kelly, how about you? Any questions or concerns?”
“No, sir. I might have some when I see the demonstration tomorrow, but nothing at this time.”
CMDR Johnson said, “Good, then I’ll call LTJG Taylor to escort you out of the building.”
LTJG Taylor met them at the double doors and led them down the elevator and out of the building. They walked in silence to a waiting shuttle and rode back to the Vigilant.
When they reached the Vigilant, LCDR Timmons ordered Chief Watson to start fabricating a brig to hold up to six prisoners in the port stores bay. He told him that they would be picking up the prisoners to bring them back for court martial. He told him to make up a fully enclosed separate space to lock up one of the prisoners that would be testifying against the others. He told the chief that the prisoners were politically sensitive and to limit information to the absolute minimum. When Chief Watson started to ask a question, LCDR Timmons just told him firmly to follow his orders. Chief Watson was an old school chief. He said “Aye aye,” and carried out the order without further question.
Timmons motioned Kelly into his ready room.
“I’ll hold off on telling the Chief that we'll have about thirty guests on board, in addition to the prisoners, until we get up to space dock. We’ll just open up the starboard stores bay and install bunks. You'll have to bunk with the lieutenant. Pull down the overhead bunk in your cabin for him. We’ll put the senior NCOs in with the chiefs. The rest will go into the stores bay. Stack them three high. Better lay on some extra rations.”
“Aye Aye, sir. I think we are okay on rations. We still have about a month and a half’s worth of rations in the stasis lockers from our last patrol.”
“Okay, lay on two weeks’ more rations to give us a full two months worth. Don’t get anything fancy. We’ll feed this to the prisoners. Read up on what the K’Rang eat.”
Kelly excused himself, went back to his quarters, and researched K’Rang dietary needs. He was not surprised to find their preferred diet was proteins, mainly fish and meats, raw or cooked. Vegetables were only a minor part of their diet. He laid on two weeks worth of some of the poorer cuts of meat and fish for the prisoners and arranged to receive them in space dock.
When Kelly finished the requisitions, he looked up at the clock, realized how late it was, and turned in. The trip to Gagarin was the next day.
The next morning, Kelly got up early and went off to breakfast. Kelly joined the captain, and they ate quietly together. LCDR Timmons read the news on his pocket terminal during the meal and didn’t say much. Kelly shared his mood and did the same. Wisely, none of the Vigilant crew that entered the mess hall came over to sit with or near them.
At 0900, Timmons and Kelly rode over to the Shuttle Detachment. When they checked in, they were led out to the ramp and escorted to the new S-660. Tammy met them at the top of the ramp and welcomed them aboard.
“Commander, welcome aboard the maiden flight of the City of San Francisco. Please follow me. You are my senior passengers today, so you can sit anywhere you please. I’m very proud of my new ship. If you would like a tour of the cockpit, we have a few minutes before the rest of the passengers arrive. I expect clearance from the tower shortly.”
LCDR Timmons turned down her invitation, but he waved Kelly forward and took a seat. Kelly followed Tammy into the cockpit and was impressed. The S-660 was fairly robust for a planetary shuttle. In addition to the normal instrumentation for an atmospheric shuttle, he saw exoatmospheric instrumentation. With the transporter rings in the Antares and Tau Ceti systems, this S-660 had an interplanetary, interstellar capability.
“This is nice, Tammy. It’s a lot more complex than I thought it would be. This cockpit looks like a dual position version of the F-53. I’m impressed.”
Tammy practically beamed at Kelly’s compliment. “Of course, it lacks weapons; however, it’s got everything else that a Scout has, but the FTL drive. I hear the new 700 series coming out will have an FTL drive. But with your parent’s invention, we may not need to have FTL in the future.”
“You may be right, but I think the military will still need FTL to cover the areas that won’t be served by rings.”
Tammy’s co-pilot entered the cockpit and told her that all the passengers were onboard.
“Kelly, meet Ensign Jim Stevens, my co-pilot. You’ll have to go back and take a seat now. I’ve got a ship to fly.”
Kelly rolled his eyes, shook Ensign Stevens’ hand, said, “Aye aye, Captain,” and went back to join his captain. He settled into a seat, buckled up, broke out his pocket terminal, and caught up on messages.
He was absorbed with his messages during lift off and climb into space. He completely missed Tammy’s announcement as they came into orbit. It wasn’t until she announced that shortly they would be docking at space dock that he even looked out the window. He noticed a frigate on one of the external docking arms.
“Hey, Captain, did you know there was a frigate up here? It looks like the Tenacious.”
LCDR Timmons leaned over to look out his window. “Yeah, that does look like the Tenacious. I wonder why they're hanging around. When the Bolivar Battle Group came through here last week, they must have broken something. Why don’t you see if there is anything in the reports?”
Kelly keyed up his terminal and saw the yard report of a blown FTL engine. It was waiting for parts that were due in this week. He wondered why they didn’t just head through the ring to the better equipped yard at Gagarin.
Kelly watched as Tammy made a perfect approach to the docking arm. She came to a complete stop next to the arm, applied side thrusters, and made a bumpless connection to the docking flange. Kelly was impressed.
In the cockpit, Ensign Stevens looked over at Tammy and said, “Your friend should have been impressed with that one. I think that was your best docking ever.”
She grinned and said, “I had to. I wasn’t about to give him anything to kid me over. You get to do it on the way back. I hope you’re up to it.”
The transfer of personnel and equipment onto and off of the space dock went smoothly, and in under 30 minutes they were on their way. Kelly watched as the space dock receded and the transporter ring came into sight. He felt Tammy line up with the ring and increase speed. The ship went through the ring and Kelly felt the familiar cold and blackness, but with the increased speed, it went by much faster than during the initial tests, just a few weeks ago.
He looked out as they came into orbit around the planet, Gagarin. Kelly felt the thrusters fire and the shuttle orient into re-entry attitude. Ships no longer burned into the atmosphere as in olden times. Modern engines gave the ships the ability to make a controlled spiral into the atmosphere. Heat shields were no longer a part of modern ship construction.
They landed at the military spaceport and Kelly and Timmons left the ship behind a Fleet Commander that had gotten on at the Antares space dock. A marine captain met them at the bottom of the ramp and escorted them to a hover vehicle.
“Commander, I am Captain Roger Starr. I’m an instructor at the Marine Special Operations Academy. I’ll be your escort. It will take about thirty minutes to get to the academy. Relax, gentlemen, while I get us going.”
The captain, actually equal in rank to Kelly, moved forward to sit next to the pilot and the shuttle lifted off. It quickly achieved altitude and sped off to the west. Kelly sat back and spent the time working though more of his messages. By the time he finished, they were maneuvering into a parking space near a large warehouse-like building. A group of marine officers were standing waiting for them as they debarked. The senior individual was a marine full colonel. Two majors and a Fleet commander accompanied him. Kelly and Timmons walked over to the colonel and saluted. His nameplate said Kumar.
“Sir, I’m LCDR Timmons. This is my exec, LT Blake.”
The salute was returned. The colonel reached over to shake Timmon’s hand and said, “I’m Rashid Kumar. Welcome to the Marine Special Operations Academy. I believe you know a nephew of mine.”
